Bombing suspect confined to house arrest

PARIS (JTA) — A Canadian-Lebanese man suspected of bombing a Paris synagogue in 1980 will be confined to house arrest, an Ottawa court ruled.

Hassan Diab, 55, on Tuesday was freed from prison and will remain under house arrest for several months until judges decide whether he must be extradited to France for his suspected role in planning a terror attack against the Copernic Street synagogue in Paris. Four people were killed in that bombing.

Prosecutors feared Diab might be able to escape while under house arrest, despite the court’s insistence that the suspect wear an electronic tracking bracelet.

French police told reporters they have evidence that Diab, a former pro-Palestinian activist, is responsible for the attack, and they requested his extradition in order to judge him for the crime in Paris, the Associated Press reported.

Diab was arrested in November in Canada at the request of French police. At the time he had been working part-time as a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The October 1980 bombing of the Copernic Street synagogue occurred during Sabbath evening prayers, when the building was packed with more than 300 people, including many children.

Devorah Lauter is a JTA Paris correspondent. She has written and worked for the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press Paris bureaus, and is a regular contributor to The New Waver Quarterly, which covers French culture. Lauter is currently completing a master's thesis at Saint Denis University on the relationship between Jewish and Muslim youth in Parisian low-income suburbs, as well as a collection of true stories on a Jewish and Muslim mixed gang.